The Complex of All of These (Bradel/German-case Binding)

The Complex of All of These by Abigail Bainbridge is a wonderful book that I am very happy to call my own. The book is out-of-print, a good thing in the world of fine print and small editions, but a PDF is available here.

In her own words, the author "contemplates the world around her. Images and words become parallel languages, where the distinction between ground and sky, past and present collapses. One conceit after another feels its way over the tiny words before sinking deep into the dark of the etching ink to linger, trembling."

I was attracted to the book when I discovered the video the other made of the entire process from making the etchings to paper, to binding during her residency at the Women's Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY. Ever since, I have used it in the presentations I gave on book arts at Syracuse University Libraries. The video composed from over 3000 still images used have a really snappy musical soundtrack, but DRM took that away. I'm glad Abigail put it back up even if now silent. Just imagine a metronome at about 110~115 beats per minute.

What I feel the video does VERY well is show the binding process from the sewing, to rounding and backing, trimming, endbanding, making the case, and casing in as a batch. It does that via the rapid-fire sequencing of the still images.

The creator is now in the UK, working in private practice as a book and paper conservator and teaching at West Dean College.